


feels like nothing is easy (it never will be)

by stupidgaytree



Series: Femslash February 2019 [1]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bittersweet, F/F, Femslash February, Secret Relationship, debatably successful talks about the future, hurley the hall monitor and sloane the delinquent, i kind of dont like this but. whatever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-10-20 21:31:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17630027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stupidgaytree/pseuds/stupidgaytree
Summary: Sloane's been pulling the delinquent shit a long time, but Hurley knows she can't keep it up forever. She doesn't know why she would want to.





	feels like nothing is easy (it never will be)

**Author's Note:**

> honestly, i was rushing to finish this before the clock struck midnight and rendered it feb 2 .. but it didnt work and now this feels a little bad and inconclusive. hopefully the bittersweet tag prepares for that a little?
> 
> i used the day 1 prompt from femslashfeb (on tumblr's) prompt list, "opposites"! & the title is from talk to me by cavetown.

As with most high school rumors, the story about Hurley and the school delinquent spread fast. It started in second period and every goddamn person had heard it by fifth. Hurley was almost grateful for her height, since she could just wriggle between her friends in a crowd, instantly disappear, and go without snickers and sly looks for a bit. Or, at least, without snickers and sly looks from people she didn't know.

"If it isn't the legend herself," Taako says, raising his eyebrows. "A surprising heel turn from Ms. Goody-Goody Hall Monitor."

"Oh, fuck you,' Hurley snaps. "It's not true."

"Really?"

"Who do you think I am?" Hurley demands. Taako laughs and reaches down to pat her shoulder.

"A whole lot of lesbian in one small body," he says. Hurley smacks his hand away.

"I think it's cute," Magnus says, "S'like you're in a rom-com."

"I hate rom-coms."

Magnus frowns. "Don't lie."

Hurley opens her mouth to reply, but she's interrupted by a loud voice somewhere to her left and ahead of her. "Miss Foster!" Ms. Queens calls, and Hurley feels her stomach jump into her chest. "A word?"

"Ooooooh," chime Taako and Magnus, while Hurley shoves through the rapidly diminishing crowd of students, probably scared into heading to their classes by Ms. Queens presence. Ms. Queens herself is standing by the bend in the hallway, and she gives Hurley a thin smile as the bell rings. "I'll write you a pass," she says, and Hurley just nods.

Ms. Queens doesn't have a sixth period class, so she leads Hurley into her room and gestures for her to stand in front of her desk. Hurley waits, jittery, for all ten of the seconds that it takes Ms. Queens to sit down at her chair and give Hurley a long look.

"I'm hearing a lot of rumors," she begins.

"None of it's true, I swear," Hurley blurts, then snaps her mouth shut.

Ms. Queens raises her eyebrows. "So you didn't," she says, "Catch our dear Miss King in an empty classroom, trying to break into a teacher's computer to edit grades."

Hurley opens her mouth. Closes it. Squeezes her eyes shut. When she opens them again, she lies, "I only heard about it."

"And this is the first a staff member is hearing about it because...?"

And there's the trap. Ms. Queens is a nice enough lady -- she doesn't seem nearly as severe if you don't mouth off at her once a week, and Hurley makes a point not to -- but if Hurley answers this wrong, then she and Sloane are both in trouble.

"Well," Hurley says, trying to recall the worst of the rumors, "Not because we're making out between classes, because we aren't."

Ms. Queens releases a long sigh. She leans forward on her desk. "Hurley," she says, slowly, heavily, "I understand that you and Sloane are close. Truly. But the fact of the matter is that we can't let this slide. You're a good kid and a good student," Ms. Queens continues, and Hurley instinctively bristles in anticipation of a dig at Sloane. But Ms. Queens says, "And I know Sloane is and has the capability to be, too. But every time she pulls this kind of stunt she digs herself deeper into a very bad hole."

Ms. Queens’s sharp eyes soften. She leans back again. "The rest of the staff are inevitably going to hear about this. There's nothing I can do about that. But I want you to talk to Sloane, alright? This is senior year. She's barely scraping by."

Hurley turns all that over in her mind. She's known, of course, for a while, that Sloane just doesn't care about school. She stays above D-minuses, and does well on tests, and that's about it. Sloane's anything but stupid.

"Am I understood?" Ms. Queens voice has regained a little of its flat tone, and Hurley hesitates before nodding.

"I'll try," she says quietly.

"Okay." Ms. Queens nods back. "I'll get you a pass, then.”

* * *

 

The day ends at three o'clock. Hurley finds Sloane at the doors and laughs when Sloane greets her with, "Hey, ladykiller." They wait until they're fairly down the road from the school to start holding hands.

"Some pretty fun stories flying around school today," Sloane says, and Hurley groans.

"Oh, God, don't even bring it up. Ms. Queens called me into her class between periods to talk about it."

"Oh, holy shit. What'd you tell her?"

"That most of it was fake, the truth, that I only heard about you in the classroom, lie, and that we aren't making out between classes."

"Usually truth," Sloane says, and cackles when Hurley gives her a light shove.

They walk with little conversation for a while. At one point Sloane excitedly points out a raven perched on a tree branch. Hurley can't tell the goddamn difference between ravens and crows, but Sloane's some kind of bird pro, and she's adorable when she gets all hypey.

Hurley watches Sloane out the corner of her eye. Her agreement with Ms. Queens comes back to mind, and after a moment Hurley says, haltingly, "Sloane, why don't you give a shit about school?"

Sloane's mouth twitches, and her pace slows just slightly. After a second, she says, "I mean, I don't have anything to do afterwards, so." "What's that mean?"

"Means what I said." Sloane shrugged. "I don't exactly have big dreams like you. I'm fine with being a mechanic 'til I drop dead, to be honest."

"That's not true," Hurley says instantly, "You hate the garage."

"I like the cars."

"That's your life plan? Cars?" Hurley stops in the middle of the sidewalk, and Sloane's hand almost jerks from her grip as she walks one step too far. "I know you have dreams, Sloane. You know so much about birds and a lot about plants, shit, you could go into a science field!"

"Think it's a little late for that," Sloane says.

"Like hell it is," Hurley replies, sharper than she means to.

"No, I think I'll just be a delinquent forever." Sloane almost interrupts her, coming in right on the tail end of Hurley's words. "You know I'm not like you, right? I don't have a one-track mind or whatever the fuck. Pretty sure there's never been one thing that kept me happy forever, and I can't bounce from career to career."

"Well," Hurley tries, and comes up with nothing. "I just," she tries again. Sloane waits.

"Just," Hurley says at last, "Please promise me not to give up on anything."

Sloane looks at Hurley for a long moment. Then down at their still-linked hands. Then down the street.

"Yeah, fine," Sloane says, "I won't lock myself into anything."

"Okay," Hurley says, "And, like, if you hate your work so much I can help you with it."

"That sounds like cheating."

"It's called being friendly and nice. Breaking into a computer to change grades is cheating." Hurley bumps her lightly with her shoulder. They start back down the sidewalk towards home.

There's always time. Thing's’ll be fine.


End file.
